[Ads-l] "California sober"

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Wed Dec 15 10:55:55 UTC 2021


There was an article on the "rolling stop" in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Can't recall the year, but it was most likely between 1945-1955. The
reference was to the "St. Louis rolling stop."

Back in the '70's, the featured article in the Travel section of the Boston
Globe was about Los Angeles. The writer wrote that a Bostonian would be
astonished by the degree to which Angelenos adhered to local traffic laws.
In the more than 17 years that I lived there, I found that to be the case.
Because I was a crazy driver, I reached the max of four moving violations,
after which your license would be suspended, on many an occasion.
Amazingly, I don't have any experience-of-racism stories to tell about the
LAPD, even though I was driving to work and backevery day, even during the
Watts Riot.

On Mon, Dec 13, 2021 at 5:36 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:

> "Idaho stop" - Idaho has had that legal for bicyclists since '82
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop
>
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 9, 2021 at 8:10 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > See my 2013 Boston Globe column linked below. An excerpt:
> >
> > ---
> > Consider the “rolling stop,” in which the driver treats a stop sign as a
> > yield. The region most identified with this casual technique is
> California,
> > and, like many such traffic insults, it’s especially favored by those in
> > the immediate vicinity, in this case neighboring states such as Arizona
> and
> > Oregon. I found a reference to the “California stop” all the way back in
> > 1964, when an Arizona state commissioner named John P. Clark was arrested
> > in Tucson on charges of driving drunk and failing to heed a stop sign.
> > Clark admitted to newspaper reporters that he had made a “California
> > rolling stop” but denied being intoxicated. In the late ’70s and ’80s,
> > “California roll” developed as an alternate term, no doubt helped along
> by
> > the popularity of the sushi roll.
> > ---
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 9, 2021 at 7:44 PM Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > > I think you're getting confused with the inside-out sushi roll.
> > >
> > >
> > > On Thu, Dec 9, 2021, 4:28 PM Benjamin M Brainard <brainard at uga.edu>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > > I always thought that was called a "California Roll" vs stop
> > > >
> > > > ..ben
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Benjamin Brainard VMD, Dipl ACVAA, ACVECC
> > > > Edward H Gunst Professor of Small Animal Critical Care
> > > > Director of Clinical Research
> > > > College of Veterinary Medicine
> > > > University of Georgia
> > > > 706-542-9383 (v)
> > > > 706-357-0109 (f)
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On 12/9/21, 4:17 PM, "American Dialect Society on behalf of Grant
> > > > Barrett" <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU on behalf of
> > gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG>
> > > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > >     [EXTERNAL SENDER - PROCEED CAUTIOUSLY]
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >     I've seen it as "Cali sober" on Reddit and there are many hits
> for
> > it
> > > >     there. The oldest mentions for both forms of the expression are
> > from
> > > >     about two years ago.
> > > >
> > > >     https://www.reddit.com/search/?q=%22cali%20sober%22
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >     GB
> > > >
> > > >     On Mon, Dec 6, 2021 at 5:51 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > > >     >
> > > >     > Looks like "California sober" is to "sober" as "California
> stop"
> > > > (i.e., a
> > > >     > rolling stop) is to "stop." (Larry Horn would call these
> > > "ironyms.")
> > > >     >
> > > >     > I discuss "California stop" (aka "Hollywood/Michigan/New
> > > > York/Philly/St.
> > > >     > Louis/American stop") in these 2013 pieces on regional traffic
> > > terms:
> > > >     >
> > > >     >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/04/06/boston-driving-bad-needs-its-own-lingo/UM7UhGh5qCdZPVukFH37QN/story.html
> > > >     >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/wordroutes/word-on-the-street-sketchy-traffic-lingo/
> > > >     >
> > > >     > --bgz
> > > >     >
> > > >     > On Mon, Dec 6, 2021 at 5:57 PM Bill Mullins <
> > amcombill at hotmail.com
> > > >
> > > > wrote:
> > > >     >
> > > >     > > "California sober" -- never ran across this before today.
> > > >     > >
> > > >     > >
> > > >     > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> https://www.lx.com/entertainment/what-does-california-sober-mean-definition/45920/
> > > >     > >
> > > >     > >
> > > >     >
> > >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
> --
>
> a
>
> Andy Bach,
> afbach at gmail.com
> 608 658-1890 cell
> 608 261-5738 wk
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
- Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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